[ Previous ] [ Next ]

By Charles Willson Peale

Thomas Sumter, or Sumpter as it was spelled during his lifetime, was one of the main rebel partisan leaders -- along with Francis Marion and Andrew Pickens -- who skirmished with the Legion in the Carolinas through the second half of 1780. Born in Virginia, he served with Braddock in the Seven Years War, and later fought the Cherokee. In 1765, he settled on a plantation near the Santee River.

He and Ban Tarleton butted heads most notably at Fishing Creek (an easy victory for Tarleton) and again at Blackstock's Plantation. Tarleton's forces were outnumbered some three to one in the latter skirmish and suffered heavy losses. Tarleton has often been accused of "lying" about the battle because he claimed it as a victory, but Sumter's forces withdrew, leaving him in possession of the field, and that was a standard measurement for success used at the time. (His correspondence with Lord Cornwallis shows that he was very much aware that the victory was pyrrhic.) Blackstock's did have one useful outcome for the British, though. Sumter was badly wounded in the skirmish and put out of action for some time.

Although he was an effective partisan, Sumter was a difficult man for his allies to work with. Greene's correspondence is littered with attempts to spread oil on the trouble brewing between Sumter and Marion (they disagreed on everything from tactics to the acceptable rules for war) and Sumter and Morgan (Sumter got into a devilish snit with Morgan over jurisdiction and chain of command).

Further Reading:

• Robert D. Bass, Gamecock. The Life and Campaigns of Thomas Sumter (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston; 1961).
• Anne King Gregorie, Thomas Sumter (Columbia, SC: The R.L. Bryan Company, 1931).